A Little Cliche
by visceraEffect
Summary: No one really expected it, but they all kind of expected it anyways. Gamagori finally acknowledged tiny No-Star Mankanshoku Mako.


A/N: I cannot help it. I just squeal at Gamagori x Mako for some reason. I just really like the two characters and I don't know why. But Mako is so cute, and at the same time, Gamagori is also adorable...Kinda... I don't own any of these characters! :D

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Gamagori thought she was an insignificant fly, a no-good No-Star student that happened to have a personality radically different from the rest of them.

So he simply ignored her and focused on the glorious light that was Kiryuin Satsuki. They were incomparable.

However, he could no longer ignore Mankanshoku Mako when the troublesome, Kamui-wearing Matoi Ryuko leapt into the the perfect picture that was Honnouji Academy. It was obvious the two would somehow gravitate to each other; the bowl-cut wearing, useless students would never match Ryuko's fire and tenacity.

It first started when Mako intervened into Ryuko and Satsuki's fight. Her loud voice proclaiming how Ryuko shouldn't be ashamed of showing her body and with that persistence to make Ryuko realize the truth, Mako entered Gamagori's simple mind for the first time as Mankanshoku Mako. It was annoying, frankly. Her voice irritated him and her peppy, bright attitude was so inferior compared to Satsuki's elegant silence.

And yet, he couldn't take his eyes off her.

The second time Gamagori couldn't think of anything but Mako was when she talked back to him, an Elite Four member. The fire in her eyes reminded him of Satsuki, just a little, except it wasn't for selfish reasons or for any kind of revenge. On "No-late day," Mankanshoku Mako defended a pajama-clad Ryuko from Gamagori's wrath. He couldn't believe a useless No-Star girl would go against someone as strong as him. For the first time in his life, he regarded a No-Star student with a small ounce of respect. But she was defending the rebel Ryuko and not obeying the glorious goddess of Honnouji Academy.

But, after he reflected on it, if she had respected Satsuki the way the other students did, she'd be no different from them and would not have garnered his attention.

Those encounters really did spin his mind out of control. Her smiles seemed more powerful than Satsuki's stoic expression. Gamagori wanted to make her smile all the time, but his loyalty to Satsuki prevented him from doing that. He was torn.

The large man couldn't hurt her, no matter how much he pushed himself. She looked so resolute, but so scared and fragile, pressured by his large body. His eyes were angry at her, his voice booming, but he only wished to comfort her. But that would mean taking Ryuko's side and he couldn't possibly do that.

So he pretended. Gamagori pretended with all his might to save both himself and Mako. Satsuki was pleased.

xx

Gamagori was scared. He was scared out of his mind. Panic made his fingers tremble as he watched Mako being pulled into a COVERS uniform. Her cries and pleas for help reverberated in his mind and he hoped to any god out there that someone would save her. He had failed to save her. The large man fell to his knees, eyes screaming in despair as he watched Mako's small form become engulfed in the sinister, horrible clothing.

Muscles bulged out and the uniform was swelling, swelling with Mako's inner power. At seeing this, Gamagori was a tad prideful; Mako's cheerfulness was her strength, and she was happy all the time. However, now, that uniform was sapping away that power, her happiness, her strength.

And the muscular man who was infatuated with Mankanshoku Mako was willing to die to save the girl.

He promised Mataro that he would save her, no matter what. That was something that he himself wanted to do. He was no longer following Satsuki's orders blindly. His heart told him this was something he needed to do.

Ira Gamagori was going to save Mako for himself.

xx

It was his own strength that made extracting her possible. Iori's machine, he believed in it with all his heart. It was going to save Mako and he was the one to use it to save her. Gamagori had promised her brother that and he couldn't possibly think of breaking the one promise that he held in higher regard than any other.

The moment he saw the Mankanshoku family's dog sniffing around and yelping at a certain bulky uniform, he knew it was her. Mako was inside that COVER.

Gamagori dashed towards the uniform, his brutal yells attracting its attention. As it shot out streams of Life Fibers to distract him, the large man brushed them away easily. Nothing would put out the fire of his resolve. He was going to save Mako. It was a mantra that he chanted every day, every waking moment, something to look forward to so that he would wake up from his sleep and have the will to go on.

Gamagori would be able to see her smile and hear her annoying, happy voice again.

From within the uniform that he stabbed the machine into, he felt a suction, a pulling, a force, sucking the human life force out of the malicious piece of cloth.

He felt his heart swelling. Gamagori had never felt an adrenaline rush of happiness before. He watched, the thumping against his ribs loud and roaring in his ears, as the small, curled-up form of Mankanshoku Mako flew out like a cannonball from the other side of the weapon. The COVER on the other side crumpled into nothing, wasted and unusable now.

"Mankanshoku!" His loud voice startled the rest, and Inumuta and Iori, in unison, cried out,

"She's out!"

Gamagori almost forgot to bring the large cannon-like extractor with him as he dashed to see if the body was alive and breathing. When he saw her stretching, the pale skin of her back and the curve of her bottom, he both felt elated and extremely embarrassed. She was nude, so very nude, and he couldn't possibly look at her!

"I'm saved!" Mako exuded sparkles and a bright grin as she stood up from her previous fetal position.

Gamagori blushed at her attire. "Mankanshoku, are you alright?" He tried to maintain the stoic expression on his face, but his bushy eyebrows were twitching from the exertion.

"Yeah! Mankanshoku Mako has returned!" Her sparkles intensified as her obliviously happy face made the large man's cheeks burn further. "W-wait…. Gamagori saved me?!"

He continued to not face her as he replied, "Yeah. I promised your brother I would."

Turning his face away but handing her a black Nudist Beach belt that was unusually stretchy and complex, Gamagori muttered, "But, please put this on."

"Eek! I'm in my birthday suit!" Mako panicked and Guts quickly hid her privates from view.

Jakuzure frowned and with her high, nasally voice, interjected, "Hey, quit your flirting. If it works, hurry up and rescue more people."

"We are NOT flirting!"

The pink-haired girl gave him a look and the poor, emotionally-vulnerable Gamagori was flustered.

"Get clear, Mankanshoku." He threw back at her, trying not to look at her body, still barely clothed due to the fact that she couldn't tell how to wear the stretchy belt-like article of clothing. Jakuzure only gave the airheaded brunette a seething gaze.

In any case, Gamagori was happy she was alive. More than happy. She was more than a No-Star student to him, now; Mako was probably someone he couldn't live without anymore. He couldn't express how he felt outwardly because he simply didn't know how.

But if no one else was there, he would've kissed her.

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Reviews appreciated! :)


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